期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2002
卷号：99
期号：10
页码：6802-6805
DOI：10.1073/pnas.052024999
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Less than 100 cis-regulatory DNAs have been characterized in the context of transgenic metazoan embryos. Here we investigate the feasibility of conducting a genome-wide search for tissue-specific enhancers in the ascidian Ciona intestinalis. A total of 138 random genomic DNA fragments with an average size of 1.7 kb were separately placed 5' of a lacZ reporter gene. Eleven of the lacZ fusion genes displayed localized patterns of expression in tadpole-stage Ciona embryos. At least five of these transgenes appear to contain bona fide tissue-specific enhancers that direct expression in the cerebral vesicle, neural tube, primordial adhesive organ, notochord, and tail epidermis. One of the enhancers maps near Distalless (Ci-Dll-A) and recapitulates most aspects of the endogenous expression pattern, including localized expression in the anterior-most regions of the neurogenic ectoderm. We discuss the prospects of creating a regulatory atlas of the Ciona genome, whereby every enhancer is identified for every gene.
